The LSD1–GFI1 SNAG interface — a second worked example of drugging an undruggable repressor through its partner
also called GFI1:LSD1 interaction · SNAG domain docking site · KDM1A-GFI1 scaffold
GFI1 is a switch-off protein that leukemia cells use to stay immature, and it has no pocket a drug can sit in. LSD1 inhibitors seem to work in this leukemia by prising LSD1 off GFI1 rather than by blocking LSD1's chemistry — which is the same trick that menin inhibitors pull on the KMT2A fusion.
The same thing, for a scientist
LSD1 (KDM1A) docks on the N-terminal SNAG domain of the transcriptional repressor GFI1 and performs a scaffolding function at GFI1-occupied genomic sites that is separable from its demethylase activity. Clinical-stage LSD1 inhibitors block both activities, and in the scaffolding case they do so by **disrupting the GFI1–LSD1 protein–protein interaction**; that displacement activates enhancers and induces differentiation in AML, including morphologic and molecular differentiation of blasts in patients with MLL translocations [E1][E2]. The complex requires a third component: HMG20B co-locates genome-wide with GFI1 and LSD1, stabilises LSD1 on chromatin at GFI1 sites through its coiled-coil domain, and is required for GFI1's repressor activity, with HMG20B depletion phenocopying the drug [E2]. **This entry exists as a comparator for the menin:MBM1 interface**, not as a target proposal: it is an independent demonstration that interface disruption of a pocketless repressor is a real, cell-active and patient-active mechanism — and equally a demonstration that the mechanism working does not make the therapy curative.
Why this is in a scan-hits folder
It is here because following GFI1 — rank 19 of 4,589 in this project's unbiased DepMap scan, and the weakest of the scan's four novel hits — led to the LSD1 literature rather than to a dependency. The scan's contribution was to make someone read; what was read turned out to bear on the project's central assumption rather than on GFI1.
The argument this project rests on is that a fusion oncoprotein with no ligandable surface can be attacked through an obligate partner's pocket. The menin:KMT2A MBM1 interface is the instance. This is a second instance, in the same disease, found by a different group, with a molecule that has been given to patients.
What is actually established1 deeper
- LSD1 has a critical scaffolding function at genomic sites occupied by GFI1, and inhibitors block both enzymatic and scaffolding activities, the latter by disrupting the GFI1:LSD1 protein:protein interaction 2.
- Pharmacologic displacement of LSD1 from GFI1 activates enhancers and induces differentiation in AML 1.
- Pharmacologic LSD1 inhibition induces molecular and morphologic differentiation of blast cells in AML patients harbouring MLL gene translocations 2.
- The complex is not two-body: HMG20B binds LSD1 through its coiled-coil domain, co-locates with GFI1 and LSD1 genome-wide with the strongest HMG20B binding at the strongest GFI1/LSD1 sites, is required for GFI1 repressor activity, and its depletion induces differentiation 2.
What is not established here
No dissociation constant, no co-crystal structure, no residue-level interface map, and no SNAG-domain boundary is asserted in this entry, because none was resolved from a primary source in this cycle. data.interface_residues_a, data.interface_residues_b and data.kd_nM are deliberately absent rather than guessed. Anyone wanting to compare this interface quantitatively with menin:MBM1 — which this graph records at 53 nM — has to go and get those numbers first.
The two lessons, and they point in opposite directions
The encouraging lesson. Interface disruption of a pocketless transcriptional repressor is not a theoretical strategy. It is demonstrated at the level of chromatin occupancy, enhancer activation, cell differentiation and patient blast morphology, by a molecule in clinical development, in the same disease this project works on. When a reviewer asks whether the menin premise is a special case, this is the answer that it is not.
The discouraging lesson. LSD1 inhibitors have not cured KMT2A-rearranged leukemia. Every mechanistic box above is ticked and the clinical result is modest. That is a direct, in-disease demonstration that mechanism does not equal cure, and it is the strongest available argument for humility about the menin interface — which this graph should prefer over an argument it has constructed itself.
The third lesson is narrower and more actionable: the GFI1:LSD1 pair needed a third protein to work. This graph's interface entries model menin:KMT2A largely as a two-body problem with LEDGF as the tether. Whether the menin:MBM1 complex has an HMG20B-equivalent — a stabilising component whose loss phenocopies the drug — is a question nobody in this project has asked.
| partner a | gene-gfi1 |
|---|---|
| partner b | target-lsd1-kdm1a-kmt2a-r |
| partner b gene symbol | KDM1A (LSD1) |
| motif a | N-terminal SNAG domain of GFI1 (the LSD1 docking site); residue boundaries not resolved in this cycle and deliberately not asserted |
| third component | HMG20B — binds LSD1 via its coiled-coil domain, stabilises LSD1 on chromatin at GFI1 sites, required for GFI1 repressor activity, depletion phenocopies the drug |
| kd note | No dissociation constant was resolved from a primary source in this cycle. The field is present and null so that nobody reads its absence as zero, and it must not be used in any figure. |
| druggability | Demonstrated in cells and in patients' blasts: clinical-stage LSD1 inhibitors disrupt this interaction and induce differentiation in AML with MLL translocations. Demonstrated druggability, not demonstrated cure. |
| comparator for | interface-menin-kmt2a-mbm1 |
| entered graph via | followed from the scan hit gene-gfi1 |
structures
[]
ligands
[]
menin mbm1 kd conditions
{
"_why": "Added by king sweep 2026-09-21 (Q82 corrections-owed #3). This entry quotes the menin-MBM1 53 nM figure. That number is NOT comparable to the KMT2A CXXC-DNA affinities without stating its buffer, and the omission is how a 1,300-fold 'discrepancy' was manufactured.",
"value": "53 nM",
"motif": "KMT2A MBM1, residues 4-15, FITC-labelled peptide at 15 nM",
"method": "fluorescence polarisation",
"buffer": "50 mM Tris, pH 7.5, 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT",
"nacl_mM": 50,
"companion_itc": "72 nM by ITC, 50 mM phosphate pH 7.5, 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM beta-mercaptoethanol, 27 C",
"source_pmid": "20961854",
"source_quote": "\"in the FP buffer (50 mM Tris, pH 7.5, 50 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT) used for binding experiments (Kd measurements)\" -- Grembecka 2010 JBC, Methods, fetched and read from PMC3003368 on 2026-09-21",
"do_not_compare_naively": {
"against": "KMT2A CXXC-DNA Kd 44 uM (PMID 20010842, Cierpicki 2010)",
"because": "that measurement was made at 300 mM NaCl -- verbatim from its Methods, \"50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.1), 300 mM NaCl, 2 mM DTT at 25 C\" (PMC2908503, read 2026-09-21) -- SIX-FOLD more salt, on a salt-sensitive protein-DNA contact, against a hydrophobic peptide pocket that is not.",
"best_matched_pair": "44 uM at 300 mM NaCl vs the 5.7 uM tagless CXXC measurement at 150 mM NaCl gives 108-fold against menin, not ~1,000-fold",
"see": "ana-the-menin-affinity-comparison-was-made-at-one-sixth-the-salt"
},
"added": "2026-09-21"
}cxxc dna kd conditions
{
"_why": "Added by king sweep 2026-09-21 (cycle 46). This entry quotes the KMT2A CXXC-DNA 44 uM. That number is a property of five choices, not of the molecule, and quoting it bare is how this graph manufactured a 1,300-fold 'discrepancy' with the menin contact.",
"value": "44 uM",
"construct": "isolated CXXC domain, KMT2A 1147-1203, untagged, 15N-labelled",
"ligand": "DNA pal oligonucleotide, one CpG element",
"method": "NMR titration",
"buffer": "50 mM phosphate, pH 7.1, 300 mM NaCl, 2 mM DTT, 25 C",
"nacl_mM": 300,
"source_pmid": "20010842",
"source_quote": "\"Determination of the dissociation constants by NMR for the CXXC domain (MLL 1147-1203) and mutants was performed by titration of 15N-labeled protein with concentrated solutions of DNA pal oligonucleotide. Experiments were carried out in 50 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.1), 300 mM NaCl, 2 mM DTT at 25 C.\" -- Cierpicki 2010 NSMB, Methods, fetched and read from PMC2908503 on 2026-09-21. The result sentence reads \"The wild type protein yielded a Kd of 44 uM\".",
"this_is_the_high_salt_end": "300 mM NaCl is roughly twice physiological ionic strength and SIX TIMES the 50 mM the menin-MBM1 53 nM was measured in. The same domain measured tagless at 150 mM NaCl gives 5.7 uM -- 7.7-fold tighter from salt alone.",
"do_not_compare_naively": {
"against": "menin-MBM1 53 nM (PMID 20961854), measured at 50 mM NaCl by FP",
"best_matched_pair": "108-fold, not ~1,000-fold",
"see": "ana-the-menin-affinity-comparison-was-made-at-one-sixth-the-salt"
},
"added": "2026-09-21"
}- This entry is the clearest in-disease evidence that a validated interface mechanism can fail to become a cure. If it is cited as support for the menin premise, it must be cited with that half attached.
- The three-body nature of the GFI1:LSD1:HMG20B complex suggests interface models in this graph may be systematically too simple, which would make predicted disruption energies and resistance-mutation predictions optimistic.
- Displacing a repressor from chromatin releases whatever it was repressing. In GFI1's case that is a myeloid differentiation program, which is wanted; but the same logic applied to a different repressor could release something that is not.
- LSD1 is required for normal haematopoiesis, so disruption of this interface carries an essential-function cost that a cell-line differentiation assay does not show.
- Does the menin:KMT2A complex have an HMG20B-equivalent — a third protein that stabilises it on chromatin and whose loss phenocopies a menin inhibitor? Nobody in this project has asked, and the GFI1:LSD1 case says the question is not idle.
- What is the Kd of the GFI1 SNAG:LSD1 interaction, and how does it compare with the 53 nM recorded for menin:MBM1? A like-for-like comparison of two interfaces that each yielded a clinical molecule would strengthen ana-comparative-interface-druggability-scan considerably.
- Is there a co-structure of the SNAG domain bound to LSD1 that could be used the way 4GQ6 is used for menin? If so it belongs in the 3D viewer beside the menin structures.
- Why did an interface that is demonstrably druggable produce only modest clinical benefit? Answering that for LSD1 is the most informative available proxy for what could go wrong with menin.
- E1strong confidence 4 of 5: Replicated in peer-reviewed work by more than one group.paper
Pharmacologic displacement of LSD1 from GFI1 activates enhancers and induces differentiation in acute myeloid leukemia.
Enhancer Activation by Pharmacologic Displacement of LSD1 from GFI1 Induces Differentiation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia · Maiques-Diaz A, Spencer GJ, Lynch JT, Ciceri F, Williams EL, Amaral FMR, Wiseman DH, Harris WJ, Li Y, Sahoo S, Hitchin JR, Mould DP, Fairweather EE, Waszkowycz B, Jordan AM, Smith DL, Somervaille TCP · Cell Reports 22:3641-3659 2018What this evidence cannot show
Read as title and abstract-level summary; full text not retrieved this cycle. The mechanistic core — that the therapeutic effect runs through displacement rather than through demethylase catalysis — is load-bearing for the comparison drawn here and should be confirmed from the full text before it is used in an argument that matters.
Evidence that argues against this (1)
- A companion commentary by the same group frames the point as LSD1 inhibitors disrupting the GFI1 transcription repressor complex, which is a complex-level claim rather than a clean two-body displacement, and the later HMG20B work shows the complex has at least three components. Maiques-Diaz A et al. 2018
- E2strong confidence 4 of 5: Replicated in peer-reviewed work by more than one group.paper
LSD1 inhibition induces molecular and morphologic differentiation of blast cells in AML patients harbouring MLL gene translocations; LSD1 performs a critical scaffolding function at genomic sites occupied by the SNAG-domain repressor GFI1 and inhibitors disrupt the GFI1-LSD1 protein-protein interaction as well as blocking catalysis; LSD1 inhibition also disrupts the HMG20B-LSD1 interaction; HMG20B co-locates with GFI1 and LSD1 genome-wide, is required for GFI1 repressor activity by stabilising LSD1 on chromatin at GFI1 sites via its coiled-coil domain, and its depletion induces leukemia cell differentiation.
HMG20B stabilizes association of LSD1 with GFI1 on chromatin to confer transcription repression and leukemia cell differentiation block · Maiques-Diaz A, Nicosia L, Basma NJ, Romero-Camarero I, Camera F, Spencer GJ, Amaral FMR, Simeoni F, Wingelhofer B, Williamson AJK, Pierce A, Whetton AD, Somervaille TCP · Oncogene 41:4841-4854 2022What this evidence cannot show
Read as abstract only. The clinical differentiation statement is the paper's framing sentence, summarising the field rather than reporting new patient data in this study. Cell lines, genome-wide binding and mass spectrometry; no in vivo or clinical experiment here. No Kd, structure or residue map for the GFI1:LSD1 interface appears in what was read, which is why none is recorded in this entry's data payload.
Evidence that argues against this (1)
- The strongest counter to using this as encouragement for the menin premise is the clinical record of the drug class itself: mechanism demonstrated, differentiation demonstrated, cure not delivered. The graph holds that record separately. Maiques-Diaz A et al. 2018
- E3weak confidence 2 of 5: Preliminary, small, indirect, or not yet peer reviewed.dataset
GFI1 entered this graph only because it ranked 19 of 4,589 in this project's unbiased DepMap KMT2A-selectivity scan, with the weakest effect size of the scan's four novel hits; the interface described here was found by following that hit into the literature, not by the scan itself.
DepMap CRISPR (Chronos) gene effect via the Open Targets Platform GraphQL API; analyses/depmap-kmt2a-selective-scan/ · Broad Institute DepMap; Cellosaurus (SIB); Open Targets Platform; analysis run by this project · Databases and derived analysis 2026What this evidence cannot show
Recorded for provenance only and deliberately marked weak. A DepMap rank has no bearing on whether an interface is druggable, and nothing in this entry rests on it.
Evidence that argues against this (1)
- The scan's GFI1 signal points in the opposite direction from the published GFI1 dose literature, so even as a pointer it was a lucky one. Hones JM et al. 2017
Counter-evidence on yield (Maiques-Diaz 2022, PMID 36171271): the GFI1 SNAG:LSD1 interface has validated mechanism -- inhibitors disrupt the protein-protein interaction and differentiate blasts in patients with MLL translocations -- and no LSD1 inhibitor is standard of care in KMT2A-rearranged leukaemia. Mechanism validation at a partner interface is necessary and not sufficient.
GFI1's N-terminal SNAG domain is the LSD1 docking site
LSD1 inhibitors disrupt the GFI1:LSD1 protein-protein interaction as well as blocking catalysis
a second worked example of drugging a pocketless repressor through an obligate partner interface, with a molecule already in patients